Uncovering Different Brain Circuits in Insomnia
New research reveals five distinct types of insomnia based on brain circuits, helping tailor specific treatments.
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Summary
Insomnia affects 10% of the population, yet its brain mechanisms remain unclear. New research identifies five subtypes of insomnia based on personality and brain circuits. These findings could lead to more effective, personalized treatments targeting the distinct vulnerabilities in brain function associated with different insomnia types, particularly emotion-related circuits.
Key Takeaways
We all occasionally experience a night of poor sleep. This isn’t a problem if it happens every now and then. However, if it occurs more frequently and you have trouble sleeping for more than three nights a week for over a period of three months, we call it insomnia. Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is the most common sleep disorder and poses a serious chronic problem for around 10% of the population. Yet, the underlying brain mechanisms remain poorly understood. A new study shows that we cannot group all people with insomnia together.
Five groups based on personality and mood
In previous research from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Tessa Blanken discovered five types of insomnia. All types were associated with the same sleep complaints but differed in personality and mood. Colleague researcher Tom Bresser thought that their MRI brain scans should also be examined separately. “I wanted to know if the location of the brain’s white matter deviates between these five types.. It turns out it does!” Bresser shares enthusiastically. “We saw that the limbic circuit, important for emotions, has more abnormal connections in insomnia types that report fewer positive emotions.
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Subscribe for FREEFor each type, we saw different circuits with different abnormalities. If we hadn’t made distinctions and had lumped all types together, most indications of different biological vulnerabilities would have gone unnoticed.”
Towards a better understanding and treatment of insomnia
Bresser: “This research helps us better understand which brain circuits are involved in insomnia. We hope that this knowledge can help design more specific treatments. Everyone carries the same label of ‘insomnia,’ but the underlying vulnerabilities in the brain can differ. For a subtype with vulnerability in the emotional brain circuit, treatment might specifically focus on supporting emotion processing.” Bresser: “These people with insomnia develop anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorders more quickly and find it harder to recover when they’re sleeping poorly. We are now looking for people who are about to start treatment for such a disorder to investigate whether sleeping better helps them recover faster.”
On a more personal note, Bresser hopes his research can help those suffering from insomnia understand their own health problem better as well. “Throughout my research I spoke to a number of people who don’t feel like they’re taken seriously, or are told that they should just go to bed earlier. Hearing that they’re not crazy, and that there are observable differences can offer them relief”.
Reference: Bresser T, Blanken TF, De Lange SC, et al. Insomnia subtypes have differentiating deviations in brain structural connectivity. Biological Psychiatry. 2024:S0006322324014185. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.06.014
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